Felt it was worth mentioning that the “complete” series of Captain N slipped under the radar and came out on DVD today. I use the term “complete” loosely because it’s actually missing the absolutely dreadful third season. Considering that Captain N is absolutely dreadful to begin with, saying that the third season is bad really means something. Still, it would have been nice if it were included.

For the unfamiliar, Captain N was a cartoon series released in the late 80s, during the height of Nintendo’s popularity. It was about a gamer named Kevin who was sucked into his TV while fighting King Hippo in Punch Out!. Kevin arrives in “Video Land” which is basically a hub to all other video games. There he meets up with some generic Princess, and helps fight off the evil forces of Mother Brain along with a rag tag group of awesome game characters turned lame. Seriously, when you have legends such as Mega Man, Simon Belmont, and Pit from Kid Icarus all in the same show fighting the forces of evil, you would expect amazing things. Somehow the people responsible for this show managed to take our beloved characters and completely destroy them.

Mega Man went from the tough blue bomber, to a little turd in a green suit, and says “mega” before every other word. Pit, renamed “Kid Icarus”, had an annoyingly scratchy voice, and was just as miserable looking as Mega Man. Perhaps the highest offender was Simon Belmont. If you read the “Castlevania: Bring Back the Barbarians” article, you would know that Simon Belmont is a man’s man. However, this Simon Belmont was to busy being concerned about his looks rather then fighting bats and medusas. Then again, looking at the lead characters from Castlevania games these days, maybe the guys who decided to make Simon a fairy weren’t to far off the mark.

It’s funny that a show about all of these great classic video games could get so many things wrong. Everyone knows Mega Man isn’t green (unless equipped with the Leaf Shield) and everyone knows that King Hippo isn’t blue, and everyone knows that a “Metroid” is an alien creature, not the planet Mother Brain lives on. Seriously, whom were these guys trying to kid? The funny thing was, even though we all knew better, we still watched it every week.

All these faults aside, I still plan on buying this set. I’m a sucker for anything nostalgic, especially when it involves video games from my youth. The show is a poorly written, poorly animated piece of crap that somehow manages to have the worst characters that are based on amazing characters, but heck, it’s so damn entertaining for all the wrong reasons. Recommended to those who remember it, but I wouldn’t pass it off to anyone else.

Purchase Captain N on Amazon